Yes I know we're a full month in, nonetheless it's a new year, a new day and a new blog post. New games as well, well not new games as such but possibly more recent games than I've been playing as of late, newer games shall we say? Newish? That's a word right? Yeah let's go with that, this is the internet after all. Tallying up my games played last year, I came to the rather startling, nay troubling conclusion that I played something like fifty games across the entirety of 2022. Nearly an inexplicable game per week by some nefarious tampering of space and time.
Not sure how I accomplished that if I'm honest, a single minded sense of purpose perhaps? A stubborn refusal to engage my time more productively? Whatever the answer, I've been left with a lot of games to reflect back upon. Lots of good times with an ample selection of the less spectacular to choose from as well. See my previous blog entries for individual run downs on these games, here I thought of one last hurrah for my 2022 in gaming. Yes it's the first and possibly last edition of 'The Background Noise Presents The Games Played Last Year Awards', the 'GPLYA' if you will or maybe 'The Goplaya's' if I'm really stretching it. A round of applause if you will for the following illustrious award winners...
The Game Most Surprisingly Bad Award
Straight off the bat into a hotly contested category here. The knives were out as prospective games vied for excellence in the field of being surprisingly bad. So this award is for games that don't have a reputation for being poor as such but despite this lack of expectation, I was dismayed to find myself playing it anyway. In all this award is for a game that might not necessarily be the worst I have ever played but its certainly trying to be. This award goes to The Magic Circle, congratulations or commiserations rather, you tried your best with some high calibre voice acting but there was no saving the essentially under-cooked nature of your game.
The Game Most Unexpectedly Good Award
Onto happier times now with an award for a game that finds itself on the opposite side of the divide from the previous award winner. Again, here at Background Noise, we are not all about the negativity. Not all anyway, only mostly. However in that brief space of time where we celebrate the good and cast away the bad, we like to celebrate those games that impressed despite a complete lack of hype or expectation beforehand. These are games that, to read their product description, might be confused for non-descript or generic experiences that you might assume won't be any good. Here we award a game that wrongfooted our expectations in the best way, here we award Pyre for flying in the face of expectation and delivering an experience that was both familiar and yet very different from what I expected whilst still managing to be a fun time all round.
The Game That Eats Your Time Award
What we give with one hand we now take away with another. Less an award and more a condemnation of the gaming industry here but one we at Background Noise will recognise nonetheless. You know them, you've probably played them, the games that don't respect your finite supply of free time. The games that gorge on your precious leisure time, games that stubbornly refuse to end. Sometimes this is by design as with your MMO's or online shooters, sometimes these are games with an actual ending somewhere to be found at a distant point in time. Sometimes the time investment is rewarded, often it is not as the industry churns out perpetual game experiences designed to never end, your foreverware as it might be described by certain notable internet personalities. Our award winner earns this distinction by shamelessly ransacking those precious moments you will never get back, our award goes to Mercenary Kings for not knowing when to call it a day and send it home, not going out on a high so much as overshooting the high by a very considerable margin!
The Game Over Too Soon Award
A pretty self-explanatory one here I hope so in the spirit of this award I won't go on too much. Suffice to say this is the equal but opposite award to our last one. The game you could have happily sunk a few more hours into. The game that might not necessarily be the best at what it does, but you could have gone back for seconds such was the quality of the portion. This award goes to What Remains of Edith Finch for its adept pacing, delivering a well realised vision of a family drama largely without the family with all the feelings and emotions that come with such a bittersweet tale.
The Game Is Melting My Brain Award for Difficulty
There are difficult games and then there are DIFFICULT games. You know the ones, where incremental progress is only made possible by storming through the sheer fortress walls of an incredible challenge. Games that are not only unreasonable in the level of challenge they pose, they are downright hostile to the player and spit on all their hopes and dreams from up on high. Vertical difficulty spikes, unbelievable timing, inhuman skill. These are all the hallmarks of a game worthy of this award. It was another hotly contested category this with more than one game vying for the goods. In the end though the judges deliberated, which is to say that I decided this award should go to none other than Furi for its keen sense of challenge, which is another way of saying that the final boss fight was a comprehensive attack on my sanity.
The Feast For The Senses Award
Such an emotional rollercoaster we are on here folks. the dizzying highs and the terrifying lows all covered within the course of a few hundred words. This award goes to the game that made the jaw drop with its sheer aesthetic beauty. A treat for the eyes, a treasure trove for the ears, possibly quite an experience for the other senses as well. Here we recognise the games that display a smorgasbord of pristine work from the art team and all who dwell within. The game that, almost by itself, vindicates that decision to spend a few hundred of your chosen currency on that latest console or graphics card upgrade. This award goes to Control because that game looked astoundingly good with a level of verisimilitude that quite frankly, bordered on the ridiculous.
The Most Random Game I Played That Year Award
A touch of light hearted frivolity here amidst the otherwise dead seriousness of this utterly legitimate awards ceremony. An award to celebrate the sometimes baffling decisions made by Background Noise (that is to say, me) when selecting the next game to play. A tribute to randomness, a salute to living in the moment, seizing the day with style and bravado. A game that I had no long term designs on, rather a game I picked out of obscurity and a game I shall now bestow this honour upon. This award goes to Arcadegeddon, of all the many games I played this year, you were certainly one of them!
The Deja Vu Award
Next up is an award for those games which, whether they be bad or good, generate a feeling of familiarity. Too much familiarity perhaps, those games that might in fact be none too concerned with striking new ground or charting new horizons in our favourite medium of choice. You might, for good or ill, call this the comfort zone award but i'm not changing it now. Is this a good or bad award? I'm not sure. Franchise fatigue, the predominance of certain genres over all others and the always reliable inclination to go where the money is, has given us a veritable production line of games chasing the same trends, that play much the same and yes, feel much the same as well. It's not necessarily a bad thing but it is what it is. This award goes to Assassins' Creed: Syndicate for being both a highly familiar experience whilst also remaining a very fun game overall.
The No Idea What's Going On Here Award
You know that feeling of being totally lost? Confused? Baffled even? When one knows not how one has arrived at their current predicament and has even less idea of how to get out of it? That feeling you get when you watch a David Lynch film? That vague sense of disquiet you get as you stare at the washing machine controls and you could swear that you do actually remember how to use the thing? This is an award for the game that generated this feeling the most in 2022. I'd show you the award, except its floating in the void above us, clutched by a nameless man who has seen dark things and is currently trying to shout a warning at us from across the unfathomable space between. In other news this award goes to Virginia, part David Lynch film, part silent film, all very strange indeed!
The Overall Worst Game I Played Last Year Award
Almost at the finishing line here folks, it is time for the best in the worst of the games I played in 2022. What was the biggest waste of time in those twelve months? Independent of all other considerations, what was the worst game I sat down to play with last year? Given that I spend no small amount of time putting lists together of the games I want to play, its impressive that there are a few candidates up for this award. You'd think i'd automatically filter out the bad ones but you'd be wrong. Some way and somehow, life finds a way and I find myself playing games I really shouldn't be playing. An award for bad decisions, deliberate or otherwise, goes to Bedlam The Game By Christopher Brookmyre, you started off promisingly enough but the start was very much the peak of the experience, its not without its good qualities but they really struggle to keep their head above the bad.
The Inevitable Best Game I Played Last Year Award
Finally we here at Background Noise celebrate the very best of the best. The game that stood head and shoulders over all others, not that video games have heads or shoulders but if they did, this one would be standing far up above them. A game that excelled on all fronts, that hit the ground running and never stopped until it was the right time to stop. A success story in every sense of the term, a game whose title you would carve into the side of a mountain in such an act of hubris even God would sit back in awe at such a perfect example of the form. Words can barely capture it, hyperbole can barely express it, tenuous metaphors fly apart against the pull of its gravity. The award for The Inevitable Best Game I Played Last Year goes to none other than Oxenfree, a characterful, emotionally resonant tale about loss, love and life with a healthy dose of spectral horror, ethereal strangeness and time travel interwoven throughout, really loved this game.
There you have it folks, an all-star selection of the best and worst of my gaming in 2022. Speaking for myself I naturally deem it a stunning success and I look forward to repeating it in 2024 and perhaps for all eternity and beyond. Good night everyone!
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